Words Of The Week

Words of the Week - A collection of thoughts from the past week

July 11, 1999

``The implications of this are huge. It was the first demonstration that stem cells could be substantially expanded outside of an animal.''

- Stephen Bartelmez, a medical researcher at the University of Washington, on an extra hormone that can help elusive blood stem cells multiply and thrive outside the body. He said the technology might offer cancer patients and others a ready supply of the life-giving cells.

``We've never seen heat like this in New York City.''

- J. Michael Evans , president of Consolidated Edison Inc., the electric utility that serves the metropolitan New York area, on the heat wave that blanketed the Northeast this past week, killing eight people and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity. ``He was sort of an odd bird. He seemed to be out in space a lot - in his own world.''

- Lilakara Das, a member of Hare Krisna, talking about Daniel Dukes, who briefly lived in the same Krisna temple as she did. Dukes' nude body was found on the back of a killer whale the size of a Greyhound bus at SeaWorld this past week. He is believed to have drowned. ``There has been such a proliferation of technology that a new threat can emerge with little or no warning. We have to be prepared for it, and we're not.''

- John Deutch, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on a report by a special government panel that he headed. The commission, which will formally issue its report this week, concluded that the United States is poorly prepared to deal with the threat presented by the spreading of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. ``What I am for is maybe as important, if not more important, than where I am from.''

- Hillary Clinton, first lady and U.S. Senate candidate, in answer to questions from news reporters about why she is running for office from New York State, in which she has never lived.